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Monday, January 14, 2013

PF February 2013 - More on China

This analysis of the February 2013 PF debate topic, "On balance, the rise of China is beneficial to the interests of the United
States."begins here with definitions.

A Summary of China's Recent History

For a brief history of China, we begin at the World War II era where much of the situation we see today began to emerge. Virtually all of China had already fallen under communist control in the 1920's. Japan had tried many times to take-over China and with the rise of Japanese Imperial power in the 1930s, Japan was expanding its presence in the far east and a China-Japanese war erupted in 1937 amid reports of atrocities by the invading Japanese troops. When Japan was defeated by the Allies in 1945, the Japanese were forced to withdraw and the Chinese government emerged as a strong military power but was economically weak. The communist government continued to deal with internal unrest and strife until 1949 when Mao Zedong became leader of Communist China. A huge group of refugees under the leadership of Chiang Kai-shek fled the mainland for the island of Formosa (now called Taiwan). This move eliminated most of the resistance to the communist government though some factions continued to harass the central government. Mainland China made several attempts to forcibly take control of Taiwan which was armed and protected by the US. Though never fully trusting of the US, Chaing controlled Taiwan and help expand the economic importance of the island until his death in 1975. Today, fully dependent upon western military might for its survival, Taiwan is considered an ally of the US.

Mao Zedong, declared the foundation of the People's Republic of China in 1949. In the late 1950's Mao began a program of modernization and started to industrialize the country. In 1966 the so-called "Cultural Revolution" was aimed toward eliminating internal forces which resisted the Communist authority. Despite his profound ideological differences with the US and direct support of the North Koreans in the 1950s and North Vietnamese during the US conflict in Vietnam, Mao is considered a great person in many respects due to his efforts to modernize and upgrade China from its feudal agrarian past. Mao remained leader until his death in 1976.

Since then, China was steadily increased in economic and military power while continuing to assert its claim to Taiwan. Hong Kong which had been under British control since the 1800s (except when Japan invaded during the second world war) was a thriving commercial center. Under an agreement between Britain and China, control of Hong Kong passed to the Chinese government in 1997. Today, mainly due to economic trade with the US the Chinese economy is the second largest in the world, after the US. Chinese military strength is formidable. With a general population of approximately 1.3 billion people, they are able to muster an estimated 230 million troops. Additionally they have thousands of military vehicles and war machines as well as a sizable naval presence around the world. China does have an active space program and have successfully launched a variety of satellites, successfully conducted a manned space flight and are currently planning to land on the moon. The Chinese unmanned, lunar orbiter Chang'e 1 orbited the moon for over a year. Chang'e 2 has since reached the moon, and then performed a fly-by of asteroid 4179 Toutatis.

China's Regional Strategy

While many believe China's military strength is no match for the US, there is a strategic value to control of seas and air-space in the far east. Two key US allies, South Korea and Japan are a very short distance from mainland China. Taiwan, also an important commercial center remains under constant threat of take-over by China. The South China Sea and the region of southeast Asia is strategic not only because of its proximity to Australia and New Zealand but also because open sea-lanes in the region are vital to the flow of commodities and goods around the world. These lanes are also vital to the economic well-being of China since any closure of the sea-lanes could harm China's access to needed resources. The Strait of Malacca linking the Indian and Pacific Ocean is one of the most important in the world since about a third of the world's oil passes through the sea-lane and and through the South China Sea. Additionally, the region is rich in mineral resources. The growing Islamic influence in the region is viewed as a concern by both the US and China.

China, as a member of the U.N. Security Council has had the ability to block various moves by western powers but they have rarely tried to initiate actions. Only recently have they begun to exert influence within various Far East associations and blocs:

Baker & Zhang (2012):"Beijing feared its relatively weak position left it little to gain from multilateral forums and instead put China under the influence of the stronger members. But China's rising economic power has shifted this equation.China is pursuing more multilateral relationships as a way to secure its interests through the larger groups. China's relations with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, its participation in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization and its pursuit of trilateral summits are all intended to help Beijing shape the policy direction of these blocs. By shifting to the multilateral approach, China can make some of the weaker countries feel more secure and thus prevent them from turning to the United States for support."
To cointinue this analysis with a look at U.S. interests, click here.

7 comments:

I am not sure I can seriously answer that. I think Pro has a good case but Con pushes more emotional buttons. I am still researching the topic but there is so much evidence for both sides I am not able to draw any conclusions yet.

Mr. Kellams, do you know where I might be able to find resources explaining how to build a framework, what the point of them are, and/or why they are used at higher-level tournaments? I am a freshman but have been to several tournaments at this point; I have only seen a team run one framework thus far (whatever it was, it seemed a poor one), and in my online research, I couldn't find much. Could you point me towards any resources I might find of use?

I have posted several articles which discuss framework, but in going back and looking for them i see they are not exactly where one might expect. My original post was in relation to a past topic on mitigating climate change and shows how to apply framework to a particular topic. Click here.

The second discussion of framework was embedded in the article about theory and practice of PF cases (part 2). Click here. Click here.

You have now made it clear to me I need to write a specific article about framework that is easy to find since I understand its use and abuse and have much to say about it. If the above articles don't help let me know and I will definitely address it sooner rather later.

I did find the resources you provided to be adequate, but a more thorough, separate post, as you alluded to, would certainly be enormously helpful.

My main problem with frameworks is application; how does one effectively reference the framework in speeches, in crossfires, in refutations, in the final focus, etc. In other words, how should it apply to actual argumentation, as well as structuring contentions.

That being said, I can't quantify how useful this blog has been to me thus far in my debating career, so thank you very much for that!